Desert Holiday

These are some photos from the last week in St. George Utah.  Shannon's folks live here and it is always an anticipated opportunity to come and visit.  Usually we can expect to have all sunshine and warm weather; this year was an anomaly with almost 2 weeks of snow and a white Christmas!

We managed to get in a few hikes as a family.  Aurora is right at home in the back-pack, there has maybe only been a handfull of days of her life that she hasn't spend some time in a carried contraption. What that means is she is pretty mellow as she is carried across the desert, up mountains, and rock climbing trips.  We are beginning to think that we can take her skiing in the backcountry this way (moderate safe terrain only).  

Views of where we live--Shannon speaks again....

Here are Abram and Aurora after we all biked down to the beach for dinner.

This is on the rocky western edge of Jericho Beach. You can barely make out downtown Vancouver in the background between the two gigantic ships.

This is a (craning) view from our upstairs bedroom window of our shared backyard. There are just two buildings making a V which is filled in with the grass and trees and one tiny jungle gym. Our main view from this room is of three red (well, they used to be, now they're bare) trees backdropped by a towering row of dark green cedars. Behind the cedars is the path to our community centre where I work.
Our patio doesn't have any nice furniture, just Aurora's jogger and my kayak hanging under the eaves.

Our darling in her megasuit.

Enjoying a walk in the forest along Whatcom Creek while we were back visiting Bellingham. I love the moss and ferns. I love how much of the green stays through the winter (admittedly, however, I would trade it for snowy winters)

We're enjoying where we are while we're here. We feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

It is amazing.

Where we live

Wayfinding at UBC

Click on the link above and then scroll down to see the map.

I just wanted to post a map of University of British Columbia's campus. We're always trying to explain to everyone how amazing the location is: ocean, acres of forest, and campus and our home smashed in between. We live in "Acadia Park," if you want to try out your map skills. What the map doesn't show, is that the forest behind us extends for miles east, north and south of us. We've really been enjoying running in there, submerged in the green of coastal forest.

The University is out on a peninsula, Point Grey. Following the coastline from the northern most point of this map, you would go along a long section of ocean access, Jericho Beach, and would see downtown Vancouver in the distance. I'll add a photo of Abe with Aurora from the wooded part of Jericho Beach.
It really is a phenomenal city as far as layout and natural beauty go. You can be all alone walking along the beach and you're about 6 miles from downtown.

Speaking of beaches.... As if you didn't already have reason enough to come and visit us, Wreck Beach (find it on the map) which is accessed pretty much from campus, is a nude beach. They have annual "Buns on the Run" to raise funds and awareness.... Need I say more?

Halloween (shannon's debut blogging post)

Aurora didn't know what was coming.

She didn't know that her tights said "troublemaker" on the back, for instance.
And since she's still far from fluent in any languge, no one could have told her.
Such is the travesty of being an infant on Halloween.


Or, any day I suppose.

Another case of infant ignorance: she still doesn't realize that her main nickname "Bug"
(as derived from the Latin root, Snugglebug)
might signify to others like she is an instect.



So, taking full advantage of the fact that she had absolutely no say
on what she wanted to be for Halloween this year,
I turned her Baby Bjorn (carrier) into a caterpiller suit.

And Abe made these fabulous butterfly wings for us parental types. My only complaint was that they were so small.

If you're still reading now that the pictures are over, we had a good time as family bug types.
The leadership and volunteering group that I run with our teens living on-campus was getting together to go "Trick or Eating" for canned goods. After a ridiculous amount of emails back and forth with these kids ("Do we have to wear costumes?" "Should I bring a bag?"), I realized that this was probably the first trick or treating for quite a few of the youth as they are internationals. I think a grand total of 4 out of the eleven that showed up were in some way dressed up, and then they wouldn't take the candy I was offering them! Things are usually hit and miss with teens I suppose, but this population is quite different from the kids we've been working and living with for the last few years (seriously, who turns down free chocolate!)
So, I made Bloody Finger cookies while they were out collecting goods....(they look gruesome, but it's just PB and powdered sugar with almond sliver fingernails). Those made some waves, but eventually most of the kids at least tried one.
It definitely was fun to see how this crazy holiday of ours is received for the first time by newcomers. Our little Canadian neighbor girls (7 and 9) thought the bloody fingers were "coooool" while our 10 year old Korean neighbor boy told his mom they were too creepy to eat, but he did want to take a picture of them.

Burrard St Bridge Vancouver

I have never considered myself to be much of a "big city" person, generally associating such places as hectic, crowded, expensive, and overwhelming.  For sure I have never really considered a city the kind of place I'd be all that interested in living.  I think though I am finding that not all cities are equal, and Vancouver is a lot more than what I typically associate with big city.  

We have the best of both worlds, the view from the Burrard St. bridge is not the view from our living room window.  For us home is a relatively secluded apartment surrounded by trees and great neighbors, but a 15 minute bus ride and 5 min walk we are standing where you see us in the photo.  

 

There is definitely more to this city than the skyline.  It is a confluence of rivers, mountains, oceans, cultures, art, ideas, and interesting people.  For example, I am doing some work for the visual art department in a wood shop that is run by the university theatre department.  The shop is close to downtown, and few hundred yards from where my painting studio is.  The other day I was in the shop for orientation and from the the ceiling of the warehouse 2 women were doing arial dance/acrobatics wound up in 60' lengths of "silk".  It was a mix of ballet, climbing, and acrobatics.   Their bodies moved as dancers but they seamlessly incorporated the friction of the cloth as their only protection suspended literally up to 60' off the ground.  As they moved the silk swayed in motion with their bodies, it was pretty incredible.  

This city seems to be full of opportunities for similar experiences. Community gardens in downtown amongst hundreds of stories of apartment complexes.  Duwali, an east indian religious festival with food and fireworks. Restaurants, art galleries, festivals, lectures, community events, films and culture; so much goes on that we miss most of it and manage to bump into just a small part of it.  While we never consider or envision ourselves settling in this or any other city, we are pretty psyched to be going to school here.  

Squamish

I probably ought to title this post "Squamish....finally", becasue that is more how it feels. 6 weeks we have been in BC and only yesterday did it finally work with weather, school, partners, and all of the other stars in my universe to align. Climbing felt good, and as usual only whet my appetite for more.  

Life

We seem to be reaching some sense of "normalcy" in our routines. It is rather surreal to realize that we are moving into the fourth week of classes and simultaneously feeling like we are moving in. This week saw some marked progress in the settled direction, specifically a broom and dustpan (no more borrowing from the neighbors), shelves in the food pantry, a mounted coat rack, and a telephone. That last item is obviously a pretty big one. A few family members and friends have mentioned that they have tried our cell phones and that they don't work, which is what happens when you move to another country. We do have a USA phone # that folks can can reach us on and it will not be an international call: 360-306-5404. It all works through the Internet so we actually have Canadian and USA lines through an Internet phone service.

Other news is Shannon is working part time as a community assistant within our greater family housing environment. It is a supportive work environment and flexible enough that she can involve Aurora. She will be planning and coordinating activities, volunteer work, and youth leadership with teenagers who live in on-campus housing. It was a crazy thought that some students would have teenagers, but it turns out most of the kids in that age category are children of faculty who live on campus. Which is kind of a unique thing, but evidence of really what a great place the UBC campus is to live on.

Aurora is working on teething. I bought a climbing gym membership. All in all we are feeling like this will be a pretty good lifestyle for the next couple of years.

Smart Bell

President Bush Addresses Nation on Economic Crisis

Follow this link to the: President's Address to the Nation

Even though we are living in Canada with out a TV we managed to catch a piece of Bush's address to the nation on the pending economic crisis. This is an issue that goes way beyond political divisions. Our current President outlines very clearly the history, potential consequences, and justification for a 700billion dollar bail out of a financial system that sustains much of our dailiy consumption. With all the pundits, interpretations, and risk involved hearing all of the speach, from the source is worth listenting to.

Vancouver, BC

At this point re-capping all the events of the past few weeks would require more text than most would care to read or I would care to write. We made it home, to no home, from Moscow. On the way I spent several days in London touring the art scene and met up with Shannon and Aurora on their layover and together we flew to Seattle.

Home was a pretty loose term for us initially, we did get a spot on campus at UBC, however we arrived home on Aug 27th, classes started on September 2nd, and we couldn't move in until the 4th of September. Thankfully to generous friends and some manipulation of the housing system we had places to stay and did successfully move into our new home on the 3rd of September.

So that means that we have been living in Canada now about 2 weeks. Things are hectic, Shannon and I are both students, we are still unpacking boxes, we don't have a phone and are mooching the neighbors Internet, we are in the middle of starting and applying for work, and in the midst of it all we are keeping up with aurora. Of course this was all a choice, we could have easily moved in sometime in August and then life would be more "normal". Instead we unpack slowly, eat dinner on the beach, Shannon paddles, and I wake up early to climb in the campus gym (while it is still free). It it an adjustment to full time school with the family, but we are figuring out how to balance it all.

Moscow Photos

Moscow's Metro

This is a map of the Moscow Metro, the worlds 2nd most heavily used rapid transit system. On a given weekday it will move over 7 million people. To put the map into a little bit more context, Moscow is home to 10,382,754 inhabitants who live within 417.4 sq mi. The Metro system is almost entirely underground, and the different lines exist at different elevations crisscrossing each other on different planes underneath the city. Escalators carry the city's population deep into stations that are beautifully decorated, often with soviet era sculpture and mosaics in tile and stone.

The first day we arrived in Moscow, Craig took Shannon, Aurora and to Red Square. The system was overwhelming. Hundreds of people all speaking Russian, crisscrossing tunnels, stairs and escalators leading in every direction, and no sense of where we were going much less any reference for N,S,E,W. The largest contributor to the confusion was the Cyrillic alphabet. Foreign signs and symbols left us unable to pronounce much less decipher where we were going or more importantly where we had come from.

Day 2 on the metro. After a total sense of helplessness had sunk in I determined that figuring out how to navigate this system was essential to seeing the many galleries, museums, sights, and totally mundane parts of Moscow which made this city, the former capital of the Soviet Union, home to the largest number of billionaires in the world, and Russia’s country's political, economic, religious, financial, educational and transportation center.

The key to unlocking this labyrinth of colors and symbols, turned out to be a map containing both the Cyrillic and Romanized spellings of all of the stations. My first chance navigating the system require an hour of preplanning, consulting the guidebook, and familiarizing myself with the pronunciation of my destination and origin. That first trip, as well as each trip I've taken since then has each had it's moments of uncertainty but the Moscow metro has allowed us to see for the first time great art by: Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Dega, Bounarrd, Monet, and many Russian artists. Shannon, Aurora, and I have seen, the Kremlin, Russian Markets, cathedrals, and museums, and a small part of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of Moscow.

Arrival in Moscow

Until recently I never imagined myself as a husband, father, and international traveler happening all at the same time. But here we are, in Russia…We arrived in Moscow on a Wednesday the 13th of August after 23 hours of traveling, an overnight flight from Seattle to London, 6 hours of layover (a quick trip into downtown), and then a 3 hour flight to Moscow. Aurora was of course our biggest concern and she was amazing, some small cries, no screams and a lot of eating and sleeping.

Shannon’s parents are here in Moscow as missionaries for our church. Craig is a physician who is the overseer of heath concerns for hundreds of missionaries across Russia, no small task. Lorna is a great support, hostess for sick missionaries, teaches English to the Russians and local culture to new missionaries. They have what is a very spacious apartment close to a metro line, therefore within about an hour of any site we would care to see in Moscow. We have and will be taking advantage of this incredible opportunity.

Oregon

After our week in Indiana with my family we flew back to seattle, spent the night with family and friends and took off for Oregon the next day. Shannon's extended family has a reunion every 2 years in Albany, we have been adoped into the clan throuh cousins, 2nd cousins, and adopted grandparents. Shannon knows the correct classification of all of this pedigree, I just call everyone family. Camping out we took advantage of our new family Mini-Van, the swing feature was not something Mercury had in mind but comes in quire handy.

Indiana

Aghh, Indiana. There is more than cornfields in this state. For the first week of August it was home to the entire Dickerson family. With my folks headed to Cambodia later this month for a church mission all of my siblings, their spouses, children, pre-fiane's, and girlfriends were all togeather. Which means we spent alot of time planning what our next move would be. However we managed to follow the essential family traditions: projects, pictures, ultimate frisbee, and rubber guns; and added some new ones as we shared slideshows, birthdays, meals, a baptism, and a baby blessing.

For Aurora it was an opportunity to bond with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who she had never met. This reunion was unique for me having contriuted to the posterity and the mahem of the now 9 grandchildren I felt a renewed connection with siblings and parents. We had a great time, I somehow managed to not get the complete family portrait pics that ought to accompany this post But, we had a great time togeather.

Homeless

Homeless. After having worked for the last year in a homelss prevention capacity Shannon, Aurora, and I packed most of our possessions into storage, keeping the most essentials in our van and began a month of travels that will end in September, hopefully with a place to live, in Vancouver British Columbia. Between when we left on the 29th of July, now, and our eventual landing date we have and will be vistiting family in Indiana, Oregon, and Russia.

Aurora Speaks

We have been enjoying incredible summer weather here in Bellingham. Last Sunday we picknicked at one of our local beaches and shot this, which we think is hillarious, film of Aurora.

Sauk Mountain Experiment

Quite a lot is happening in our lives currently. Tuesday of this week we said goodbye to the last youth that was placed in our home through North West Youth services. This ended of an incredible year of working with homeless and foster youth in our home. So in celebration of independent family living we took Aurora on her first backpacking trip!

Sauk Mt. is small peak in the North Cascades, easily accessed from Hwy 20 East of Concrete WA. I think that this is likely one of the most scenic 5mile round trip hikes I have ever been on.

The trail head is somewhere in that 4,000ft elevation range, so right out of the car there are incredible views of the Skagit Valley, the Sisters Range, the North Cascades, and beautiful meadows of wildflowers. In essence this hike starts our great and only gets better with elevation

Shannon's sister Erin was visiting with us and our plan was to backpack into Sauk Lake, camp out, and the next day enjoy the summit. Our plan however was less inviting as we viewed our destination still covered in snow and ice. We could have spent the night near the summit but with setting sun, lowering temps, hours before dark, and of course Aurora, we opted to hike back to the trail head and camp there for the night. Which was great. We had an excellent sunset and slept with Aurora in the van and the next morning went raspberry picking in Skagit Valley. Aurora had a great time, at least we think she did, she slept in the little front pack during all of the hiking and was totally content on the summit and camping as long as she was warm and had food on demand. All in all our experiment in family backpacking was a total success everyone had a great time!

Mt Baker Climb

About 2 months ago I was approached by a friend at church with plans that the stake had for all of the priest age young men (16-18yrs) to climb Mt. Baker, somewhere in the vicinity of 60 people had expressed interest. My response, "I want nothing to do with it". Over the next few weeks a few phone calls about the trip came trickling in until it was established that I knew something about climbing. I was asked to be the leader of the group coming out of our building, about 12-15 folks. I was confident that number would come down and I agreed.

At 10,781' Baker is the northernmost stratovolcanoes of the Cascade range, due to the high annual precipitation the mountain is almost completely covered in glaciers. Our route traversing the Coleman and Demming glaciers is not a technical climb but required solid rope and rescue skills in addition to the basic crampon/ice axe business.

In my mind the climb was fraught with uncertainty. Would the group (down to 3 boys and 2 adults) physically be capable of the climb? Would they be able to acquire the skills to do the route safely? Would they have adequate clothing and shelter? Would the weather cooperate? While we did a lot to prepare by climbing the North Twin Sister and doing rope and rescue scenarios my doubts lingered. My uncertainty escalated as we arrived at our base camp at 7,000' in 50mph gusting winds, snow, sleet, freezing climbers, and collapsing shelters. As every one was going to bed I told them I was pulling the plug they were all freezing, hungry and wiped out... though after eating, and thawing in a warm dry sleeping bag my thoughts began to open again to the idea of climbing.

I woke at 4am to clear skies, later than I had hoped, but not to late to make and attempt. I wondered how the group would react to the call to climb after a difficult approach and 5 hours of sleep. Not a single complaint. We left our camp at 6:30, 6 hours later all of us were standing on top. For me the best part of the climb was not the summit, but a specific moment during the climb, it was when we attained the West ridge leading to the summit. We were still hours from our destination, but at that moment looking up I knew that we were going to make it, that was something to feel good about. For these green climbers it was "an experience of a lifetime" for me it was an opportunity to share something that I love, adventure, camaraderie, and the freedom of the hills.